With most newspapers shedding subscribers like Australian sheep dogs and Bend's economy tanking over the past couple of years, The (Bend) Bulletin claims its circulation grew 34 percent.
That is laughable, but new accounting rules by the Audit Bureau of Circulation give newspapers the right to count those who visit their websites as subscribers. The Bulletin claims it now has 54,000 subscribers. Just last year they had about 30,000 and even that number was highly suspect.
If the paper was doing so well, why did it slash employee pay 10 percent and also force furlough days on the staff that amounted to another 10 percent cut? Because, like many businesses during this Great Recession, it wasn't doing well.
Click here for the story from Editor & Publisher.
It used to be that no one under the age of 40 subscribed to a newspaper. Now that age is creeping toward 50.
Newspapers are going the way of land-line phones. (Notice that Qwest is getting bought out.) Cell phones rule among young people in the way that newspapers do not. The internet and social networking have replaced the sense of community that newspapers once claimed.
It's a whole new world in communication.
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